Why not provide people with exercise machines that generate electricity to power their houses? This would encourage people to exercise in the knowledge that they were saving money, helping the environment and improving their own health. Is there some reason why this could not help families work together to fight the obesity epidemic, and at the same time provide a sustainable source of energy?

Monday, January 21, 2008

Imagine two presidents in the White House. "A question for the President...No, the other one." "Nice to meet you Mr President and you too Mrs President, and of course your lovely future President Chelsea." I wonder if they'll bring back the furniture they nicked on the way out last time?

Sunday, January 20, 2008

"'I understand that whilst it's a fact that crime is falling, what you want to know is what's happening on your street; what the police officers in your area are doing and who they are,' she said. 'That's one thing we'll provide to people. Serious violence is something we need to address.'"

Oh yeah, serious violence. That category is burgeoning rapidly. But the other statistics are getting better, so (as Tony used to say) y'know...What is your problem? It's only one category in the statistics. ("Serious violence"don't even know what it means. Note: ask a focus group?)

The statistics for wheat harvests etc. were superb during the horrendous famines presided over by Mao and Stalin. Similarly "it's a fact that crime is falling" during this present upsurge in serious violence. That's according to the Axis of Bureaucracy in the police, local government and Whitehall.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

If you haven't got iTunes, I highly recommend that you get it by clicking on the link and selecting Download iTunes (it's free). The links in the following only work if you have iTunes installed (iThink (therefore iAm).)

There is so much you can tune into or download for free, including thousands of radio stations from all over the world in a handy list by genre, coming through in beautiful quality, podcasts from highbrow to lowbrow, or my favourite: middlebrow. For example weekly podcasts from the BBC, Guardian, RTE (Irish broadcasting service) etc etc.

It's not all about music tracks, but it can also hoover in all your cds and share them with an iPod, if you ever get one. Whatever you play on iTunes, including your podcasts will all go into your iPod, every time you plug it in, but you don't need an iPod - that's just an optional extra.

If you want to spend money, there are wonderful music videos, including - highly recommended - new John Lennon videos, featuring footage recently discovered. I can't get enough of the new video to Mind Games or Nobody Told Me, not to mention the classics Stand By Me and Imagine. Did you know that Michael Jackson's Thriller is still in the top five selling videos on iTunes after all these years (number 2 in the UK at the time of writing!) While on trivia, Amy Winehouse's album Back to Black has been in the top ten albums I think for over a year(?)

But back to the free! Radiohead offer a free video podcast series from their new "In Rainbows" album. It's not just talking heads, it's real music performances, the latest being "Weird Fishes". If you have iTunes installed, the following link will take you to the Radiohead podcast listing where you can click Subscribe to download from this video podcast series from "In Rainbows" by Radiohead, which lists Weird Fishes and several other videos of tracks from the album for download.

Some of the Radiohead podcasts start with tiny clips from "Scotch Mist - a film with Radiohead in it", and mostly followed then by filmed performances of the tracks. (I wonder if the film ploy is for contractual reasons?)

Stick with your Auntie Jacintha for all the best free music and video downloads. You know your auntie always brings you treats. That's what aunties are for. Maiden aunties, anyway.

They do these very well. Other online news services offer photo series like this as well, but Sky News seems to have a good eye for them. The standard of photo journalism and video reportage on the web is becoming more and more impressive every week.

Skynews features clips from their TV station, but Guardian and especially Telegraph practically have their own TV stations online, there are so many video reports. Sticking to British sites, naturally BBC News is a leader, with live 24 hour transmission of their News 24 channel. Adding to that the BBC iPlayer which shows all main programs from the last seven days of BBC TV, it really is getting to the point where the old TV sets will be defunct and all TV will be computer based.

Of the overseas providers, one that is always compelling is National Geographic, where seldom a day goes by without video and photo-based reports that are compulsive viewing, offering a good overview of developments in science.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Founder Bill Gates has confirmed that he is retiring this year from Windows software company, Microsoft. He is donating most of his money to charitable foundations for the eradication of malaria and other projects. Let's call it penance.

I know the technology may not be totally accurate, but I can't help wondering what the results would be if it was run against the statements of people connected with various notorious cases. Call centres use it to detect when people are lying. The users believe it works, but others say it's not proven. Nevertheless, curiosity demands that somebody run it and let us know. You know what to do. I'm not paid to tell you. This is dry hump number 999, so do it yourself you lot (journalists/cops/enterprising software geeks).

Did anyone else hear that tape supposedly of Iranian speedboat radio operator telling the US fleet they were about to be attacked? It sounded comically false. On Newsnight last night, we heard the crackly and noise-overlaid sound of the US captain warning the speedboats, then we heard this deep, up-to-the-microphone voice saying in English something to the effect of we are going to attack you; as if that laid-back, steady tone could be achieved from a small speedboat bouncing about at sea in the middle of a naval incident. It must have been produced by the same production company that produced those ludicrous, so-called intercepted phone calls supposedly of Iraqis saying "Quick move the weapons of mass destruction, the Americans are coming." (Where did they move them to - outer space?)

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Really clever and interesting way to access thousands of free radio stations online. The way things are operated is sometimes very important, as with the iPod - and something some manufacturers, for example Sony and Microsoft, will never understand in a million years (it seems).

Saturday, January 05, 2008

"In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway fails to return to his past, he is exiled from his memories, because his prose is writing itself and he is having a hard time keeping up." (Craig Raine, Guardian Review)

There should be a general strike until free transport for workers, students and schoolchildren is achieved. Maybe it would wake them up, that dozy shower of hypocrites and conmen in government. Bring it on!

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

"Patients could be required to stop smoking, take exercise or lose weight before they can be treated on the National Health Service, Gordon Brown has suggested." (Telegraph)

If this farcical idea is implemented, I hope that the NHS will be able to claw back the cost of several month's hospital care taken by Gordon Brown for his self-induced injury caused by playing rugby. Why should the NHS pay for maternity care, for that matter? It's due to a self-induced condition.

Great website. I never thought I'd find a website that appreciated the strange intensity of Willesden sunsets. It sounds ridiculous to say you don't see them anywhere else - but it's true isn't it?
- Zadie Smith (comments)

Despite your outrageous heightism, I would be very happy to take up your case with the Council...
- The Rt. Hon. Sarah Teather MP, Brent East
(Dear Feargal)

As you know yourself, the quest for form - the search for the voice and scale necessary to what one wishes to say
- is the primary effort of writing. This may lead one into novel writing at one point, and into the writing of sonnets later on
- rather as Beethoven confined himself almost exclusively to the string quartet after finishing the Op 125 symphony.
- Rana Dasgupta (Dear Feargal)

a note from Red Woodward

We have asked our columnists time and again only to post stories that are not not untrue, but frankly it would be easier to train monkeys. Please tell us if we have inadvertently hit on something not not true, and we will uncorrect it. (Ed.)

the wisdom of Red Woodward

"Never trust anybody honest."

"This whole everybody dying malarkey has got beyond a joke."

"One of these days you'll hear that I died. That's what I'll miss, hearing all the news."

"What a person says a lot about says a lot about a person."

"Minimalism is the biggest load of crap ever."

"There's no such thing as waiting. You are either doing something useful or you are doing something useless."

Except for permission to include in the Willesden Herald online or other media editions, contributors retain copyright and all other rights on their letters and submissions. Please include any link or email address in your signature line, if you want it published.